Forty Five Ten to Open Napa Valley Outpost

The boutique will be on Yountville’s Washington Street, near such restaurants as Chef Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry and Bouchon.

Forty Five Ten, the Dallas-based specialty store, is expanding farther West. The retailer, known for its high-end mix of fashion and accessories for women and men, home and apothecary, will open in Napa County, Calif., on July 28.The 865-square-foot boutique will be located on Yountville’s Washington Street, near such restaurants as chef Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry and Bouchon. This is the fifth store for the brand, and the first outside Texas.“I’ve been spending time there this summer and the last few years, and I find it to be one of the most beautiful, relaxing places, and I love the incredible food and wine culture there,” said Brian Bolke, cofounder and president of Forty Five Ten, in a telephone interview. “I love how relaxed everybody is; it just felt that there was a real void for interesting retail.”He said there are no other specialty stores nearby. “Yountville is a very special place. It’s not Napa and it’s not St. Helena,” he said.Asked if he’s considering expanding to other cities, Bolke replied, “Like any retailer today, we look at so many opportunities and this one felt inherently right. We also had a strong, organic relationship with Thomas Keller, which drove this decision. I’m so respectful of what he’s created and his passion for Yountville. He’s just completely redone and expanded French Laundry. I toured it in April and it was extraordinary,” he said.Part of the location’s appeal was the broad range of customers that Napa attracts, said Bolke. “I do think Napa is a very unusual place. I also like there’s a wide breadth of people who come there, from Bay Area people who spend their summers and weekends there. You get a lot of international tourists, and you get a lot of regional tourists who go there to relax. It’s a nice mix, and we’ve assorted to appeal to all those different customers,” said Bolke.The Napa store will feature equal parts apparel, gifts, home and apothecary.“We’ve really taken the assortment from high to low, from a Mark Cross crocodile bag to body lotion. I think it’s going to be interesting to see what hits this customer. One of the best voids in Napa is, the weather is not always what people think. From an apparel standpoint, we really took the concept of ‘if you went to Napa, what would you need at that time of the year?’ It’s really not a designer assortment, but what fits the mood and vibe of Napa.“It’s super casual,” he added.The Napa location will highlight selections from emerging designers such as Jacquemus, Khaite, Kalita and Tome, as well as established brands such as Celine, Loewe, Mark Cross, Gabriela Hearst, Adam Lippes and Derek Lam. Men’s and women’s ready-to-wear and accessories will be showcased near Forty Five Ten’s Rare Beauty assortment, which includes Goop, Heretic Parfums, Vintner’s Daughter, as well as a gift and home area overseen by Forty Five Ten Home creative director Rob Dailey.As far as the layout, Bolke said, “It’s really charming and not slick because it’s organic to the space. It’s charming and unassuming and I hope that’s the way it should be.”In 2014, Forty Five Ten entered into a joint partnership with Headington Cos. in the development of its flagship location. The new Napa store is also part of that investment.“I think we’re always offered quite interesting opportunities. This one struck a chord because I personally knew this location,” said Bolke, who went to high school and college in the Bay Area. “I do know the terrain really well.”Asked for a first-year sales projection, Bolke said he always feels his stores should be hitting the $1,000-a-square foot range.Forty Five Ten, which carries established and emerging designers, was founded by Bolke and Shelly Muselman in 2000. In addition to its four-story, 37,000-square-foot downtown flagship on Main Street in Dallas, it launched a spin-off concept, TTH Forty Five Ten in August 2016 in Highland Park Village. Last November, it also opened a 3,300-square-foot boutique in Houston’s River Oaks District and in March 2017, unfurled For Home Forty Five Ten in the company’s original McKinney Avenue location in Dallas.To toast the opening of the new store, Ken Fulk, designer and event planner; Cindy Rachofsky, philanthropist and arts patron; and Jay Jeffers, interior designer, will host a private VIP party July 27. Among the guests will be Adam Lippes, actress and model Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, alchemist and founder of Heretic Parfums Douglas Little, and Vintner’s Daughter founder April Gargiulo. A percentage of the evening’s sales will benefit Bay Area Legal Aid, which provides free bilingual legal assistance to seniors, immigrants and low-income residents of the Bay Area.

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